The present invention generally relates to valve openers or actuators for manual valves of gas cylinders and, more specifically, to valve openers which can open the manual valves from a remote location.
Many compressed gas companies prepare mixtures of gases which contain flammables and oxidizers. On occasion, an error occurs which permits a flammable mixture to exist in the cylinder (i.e., gases exist in the proper proportion to permit combustion). Because the mixture has everything required to burn or explode, except an ignition source, the gas cylinder is an extreme danger to personnel in the vicinity. Mechanical energy, shock, static discharge, or adiabatic heat of recompression can be sufficient to ignite the mixture, potentially causing an explosion.
Some gas mixture manufacturers simply use the manual valve while others use either a mechanical-electric stepper motor device affixed to the gas cylinder or a pneumatic powered device affixed to the gas cylinder to open the manual valve. The manual valve alone cannot be opened from a remote location, that is a safe distance, and therefore poses a risk to the person opening the manual valve. While both electric stepper motors and pneumatic activated valves openers can be operated from a remote distance from the gas cylinder, they each have significant disadvantages or risks. Electric devices carry a degree of risk from sparks and electric current as potential ignition sources. Pneumatic devices do not stop once they overcome the torque necessary to begin valve opening (breakaway torque), and can permit adiabatic heat of compression to reach a high enough temperature or a high enough velocity to provide an ignition source as the mixture exits the valve and proceeds into a piping system. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved valve actuator for safely opening manual valves of gas cylinders from a remote location.